The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-04-23
The Canaan Valley.
FRIEND.

The natural curiositles of this isola-
ted and comparatively unknown re-.
gion, in Tucker county. w. Va. are
truly wonderful, presenting to the
student of wild nature an almost
endless variety of interesting mys-
teries. Before the w. Va. G. & P.
r. r. was completed to Davis this
valley was inaccessible from all
points of the compass, and seldom
seen except now and then by some
daring hunter or adventurous party
of trout fishermen. The distance from
Davis via the "graded road" which
has just been completed, at the cost
of three thousand dollars, to Black
water river, which finds its sources
in this remarkable valley, is eight
miles across the mountain, or follow
ing the tortuous "meanderings there
Of" some forty miles. The Rum
barger Lumber Co. have recently
cleaned out the river, built splash
dams, &C., and are driving immense
quantities of cherry and spruce logs
to their boom and mills at Davis.
The graded road from Davis is con-
slant assent for two miles, until you
attain an altitude of nearly 1000
feet, when all at once you reach the
summit the scene that bursts into
view is simply grand enough to en-
chain one to the spot for hours. From
this point you have birds-eye view
of the entire valley, six miles wide
and twenty miles long, hemmed in
on all sides by "Canaan Ridge"
which is in reality mountain nearly
four thousand feet above tide water.
The outlines and general appearance
of the valley closely resembles the
Deep Creek glades, in Garrett coun-
ty, Md, as seen from Backbone or
Meadow Mountain, but is some FIVE
hundred feet higher. 1t has evil
IDENTIFY been the basin of lake, thous-
ands of years ago. The valley proper
is an undulated plain. interspersed
with small glades, ridges and swamps
of big laurel or rhodode,adron. all
heavily timbered with tall, magnifi.
cent cherry, spruce, hemlock. fir,
beech, maple, birch and ash timber /;
but strange to say, not single white
pine, oak, chestnut, hickory or pop
lar tree Is to be found. The soil is
rich and underlaid with grey lime
stone which projects above the sur
face In all directions. There are hum
dreds of "sinks." or natural wells"
from ten to thirty feet deep, with
running ice water at the bottoms, in.
habited by brook trout. which find
their way for miles under ground.
Near s. w. COsner's house a large
spring bursts out of limestone cliff
and sinks out of sight within fifty
feet. In fact, there are numerous
springs of this charter all through
the valley. Just below this spring
there is a large fiat rock of peculiar
formation that is museum of Curl
osities in itself. The smooth surface
is literally covered with the clearly
defined tracks of large and small bare
foot Indians, bears. deer, panthers,
wild cats. wolves, foxes and other
larger unknown or extinct species of
wild animals.
The writer, while surveying large
tract of land extending entirely across
this valley. has been compelled to cut
lines through the laurel and timber
forests In all directions, hence has
necessarily been brought in imme-
diate contact with all the visible
curiosities and knows whereof he
speaks. Several years ago, during a
very dry season, fire was started by
Sol. w. Cosner, which burnt over
some two thousand acres of laurel In
the upper end of the valley. killing
all the timber, which has since blown
down and literally covers the ground,
One characteristic of the soil is that
as soon as it is cleared and burnt over
there springs up, as if by magic. q
luxuriant growth of Kentucky blue
grass and timothy, without any seed
being sown, Query-where does the
seed or germs come from?
The forests still abound with deer,
bears, wolves, panthers. &C.. &C., but
the rapid advance Of civilization, OF
rather of the lumberman's axe, is
gradually driving all kinds of wild
n.s, - khA Hnak-naaon sc A.